Photo by Michael DeFilippo, courtesy of World Chess Hall of Fame
World Chess Hall of Fame
When it came time to plan an exhibition celebrating the World Chess Hall of Fame's first decade in St. Louis, even chief curator Shannon Bailey, who has been at the WCHOF since it moved in 2011, found herself surprised by all the museum has accomplished.
"Fifty exhibitions...that was the shocker," she laughs. "We realized we had done 50 shows."
Those shows have included artworks by Keith Haring and M.C. Escher, explorations of chess' place in politics and history, artifacts from great games and players, and incredible chess sets from all over the world. And until July 17, pieces of each of the 50 previous exhibitions will be on display throughout the WCHOF as part of Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis, the museum's first-ever museum-wide exhibition.
"We realized that it was so hard to whittle down into one gallery what we've done in 10 years," Bailey says. "So we decided to do it in the entire museum, which is the first time that we've done it on all three floors. We thought, let's pick some of the highlights from some of the shows, things that had been talked about a lot over the years."
One easy picks for that list was Liliya Lifánova’s performance art piece Anatomy is Destiny, which has been in storage since 2012, when it was last shown through WCHOF and performed at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
"[Lifánova’s work was placed] among like Barbara Kruger and Tom Friedman and Yoko Ono, some of these artists that you study in art history," says Bailey. "These are artists who exhibit at major international museums. And the visitors almost unanimously picked her piece of their most favorite piece in the show...the whole thing was just magical, and we've been talking about that piece for 10 years."
Mind, Art, Experience is a rare opportunity for visitors to see pieces they missed or revisit old favorites. It also gives the WCHOF the chance to share new works by artists featured in previous shows. Bill Smith, whose work was featured in a solo show in 2013, had since sold or repurposed the pieces from that exhibition. The plan was to show one new piece of his as part of the retrospective. Instead, he arrived in St. Louis with three.
"He brought them in the other day and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, they're amazing. I can't pick.' We really only had room for two, but they're fabulous. So we have a couple of new, fresh [pieces] that are representing shows that had been here before," says Bailey.
As the World Chess Hall of Fame looks back at its decade on Maryland Avenue, Bailey hopes this retrospective, like all their shows, provides something for everyone, from those who have never picked up a pawn to Grand Masters.
"What I think I'm most proud of about the show is that, our mission, we're obviously a hall of fame, we're a cultural institution, we're a chess museum. But I always like to say that we're here to kind of show how chess has survived for 1500 years. It has encompassed all cultures, all groups of people, all ages...my whole thing is just: come in, have fun, and learn something."
Mind, Art, Experience is on view through July 17. A reception celebrating the exhibition along and the World Chess Hall of Fame's 10-year anniversary in Saint Louis will be held April 14.
